Plans for the major redevelopment of a Witney industrial estate are to be decided shortly.

Talks are taking place between West Oxfordshire District Council planning officers and a consortium wanting to develop the Bridge Street Mill estate.

An outline application envisages 176 homes, ranging from one-bedroom flats to five-bed houses, a dance studio and health club, together with a riverside cafe and restaurant.

The existing industrial buildings would be demolished.

Members of the council's lowlands planning sub-committee, which deals with plans for the Witney area, are to visit the site to assess the scale of the scheme.

Planning officer Phil Shaw said: "It is situated in the heart of the town, within the Conservation Area, adjacent to the river and Langel Common.

"It proposes a major re- development involving loss of much of the existing commercial uses and their replacement with a primarily housing-based scheme.

"A new bridge is proposed across the River Windrush and this site is in a part of the town that suffers from considerable problems of congestion."

Bridge Street Mill was one of Witney's blanket mills and few of the original buildings are left on the ten acre site.